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The great Australian struggle
March 9, 2007
Three rate rises last year took the benchmark level to 6.25 per cent while the median price in Melbourne hit a record high in the December quarter of $391,000. A typical Victorian household now commits 34.3 per cent of its gross income to service a new mortgage, according to the Real Estate Institute of Australia report. This compares with 30.6 per cent in late 2005.
A spokeswoman for Treasurer Peter Costello defended the Government's record and said its first-home buyers scheme had helped nearly 950,000 Australians buy a home.
"The real impediments to housing affordability are rising stamp duties and a lack of land release," the spokeswoman said. "Stamp duty collected by states and territories on home purchases has more than doubled since 2000 to nearly $11 billion."
Labor Treasury spokesman Wayne Swan said housing affordability was a complex issue, but affordability had worsened under higher interest rates. Based on borrowing 90 per cent of the purchase price of the median-priced Melbourne home of $391,000, repayments had skyrocketed.
"Eight consecutive rate rises under the Howard Government have added more than $130,000 to mortgage repayments on the average new home loan in Melbourne over the life of the loan," Mr Swan said.
ANZ chief economist Saul Eslake, who spoke at a housing conference in Melbourne yesterday, said the way to deal with affordability was to increase stock rather than put more money into buyers' hands.
He said government actions such as increasing first-home buyers' grants, stamp duty concessions or rent assistance would inevitably result in dearer houses. " Policies which work only on the demand side of the housing market are doomed to fail," he said.
"Instead, policy needs to focus on increasing the supply of housing — particularly low-cost housing — and reducing the time taken to bring land and housing to market."
Mr Eslake said that despite the housing boom ending in most cities about three years ago, property prices had shown "remarkable resilience".
The lower interest rate environment, greater competition in mortgage markets and rising real incomes had fuelled borrowing and contributed to the price increases.
Although the borrowing capacity of buyers had more than trebled in the past 15 years, and immigration risen, there had been no corresponding increase in the supply of housing.
A prominent property developer told the conference yesterday that affordability would be improved by more medium-density development in existing suburbs, not by developing the outer suburbs or through high-rise apartments.
"Anybody that thinks that either urban fringe or high-rise apartments are the answer to housing affordability, is totally deluded," said Australand managing director Brendan Crotty. "Land prices will kill one and construction costs will kill the other."
http://www.theage.com.au/news/bu ... /1173166895673.html
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